Secondary 800Mhz

[grad20_09]

dialing *#*#4636#*#* brings up a bunch of options to mess with. At work i get no signal, but changing to the cellular 800mhz band gets me roaming on Verizon.

 

On my way home one evening there was a particular area that would not let me connect to 4g but that i knew was covered, i decided to choose the Secondary 800Mhz band option which from doing a google search seems to be the Nextel iDEN spectrum, and to my surprise I got a 4g signal.

 

However there are are couple of strange things happening. In certain areas (where there is 4g coverage) I get a signal by switching to the Secondary 800Mhz band. But, the signal indicator lights up as 4G and full signal. NetMonitor says i'm connected but doesn't tell me what tower or the signal strength.

 

In areas where there is no 4g, the Secondary 800Mhz does not detect any signal.

Is my phone going wonky? I didn't think the EVO LTE supported 4G on the 800mhz band?

[Josh]

To the best of my knowledge, I have read the tech specs for the EVO LTE and no, it is not supposed to have LTE 800 Radios. What is probably a glitch with the 4G icon, where as when it detects the new 800Mhz SMR spectrum that is only CDMA 1x Advanced, it does not know what it is and displays it as 4G. Now if you were getting high download speeds, I would again say that it was a glitch, and you were actually connected to LTE 1900 and getting the CDMA 800 for voice. The type of LTE chip that is in that phone can only support 1 LTE frequency, and therefore cannot be connecting to LTE 800 as far a I know.

 

On the bright side, the new chips from qualcomm should support all 3 sprint LTE spectrum signals when they go live, and so if the phone companies choose these chips or any others that have similar abilities, they will be able to take advantage of the future LTE.

[WiWavelength]

Secondary 800 MHz refers to SMR 800 MHz, which has long housed iDEN 800 but is being refarmed for CDMA1X 800 currently and LTE 800 eventually.

 

For the EVO LTE, Secondary 800 MHz affects only CDMA1X and EV-DO modes. So, if you force Secondary 800 MHz and acquire a signal, then that indicates CDMA1X 800. Thus, Network Vision 3G 800 MHz upgrades are also in place in parts of your market.

 

But the 4G indicator on the EVO LTE means exclusively LTE 1900. So, your handset maybe idling on CDMA1X 800 and LTE 1900.

 

If all that you report is accurate, please confirm by launching the FieldTrial app (##DEBUG#) and reporting your 1X Engineering BAND # and CH # the next time that you successfully force Secondary 800 MHz.

 

AJ

[4ginnc]

So when Sprint adds support for 800MHz will that include EV-DO as well as CDMA1X and LTE? Most of the discussion I've seen usually mentions 1x and LTE.

 

Reason I ask is, currently my 3G signal varies at home from like -96dBm to maybe around -102 and sometimes slightly worse during storms. However, it rarely ends up dropping down to 1X. If I end up with a stronger 1x 800 signal than EV-DO the concern would be that I would switch more often to 1X mode, especially after hearing the issues people have had holding a weak LTE signal.

[Rawvega]

There's no indication that I know of that Sprint plans to put EV-DO on their 800MHz spectrum, just 1x Advanced. With them planning to also put a 5x5 carrier of LTE on that spectrum, there simply isn't room for a 1x Advanced carrier and an EV-DO carrier.

[pyroscott]

So when Sprint adds support for 800MHz will that include EV-DO as well as CDMA1X and LTE? Most of the discussion I've seen usually mentions 1x and LTE.

 

Reason I ask is' date=' currently my 3G signal varies at home from like -96dBm to maybe around -102 and sometimes slightly worse during storms. However, it rarely ends up dropping down to 1X. If I end up with a stronger 1x 800 signal than EV-DO the concern would be that I would switch more often to 1X mode, especially after hearing the issues people have had holding a weak LTE signal.[/quote']

 

You don't have WiFi at home?

 

From JBtoro on Forum Runner

[4ginnc]

You don't have WiFi at home?

 

From JBtoro on Forum Runner

 

Well, I have Wi-Fi but it's using a Sprint 3G card for the back end. I have no cable internet, no DSL, etc. Really no other options at this time but Sprint 3G. Fortunately I've had it long enough that I'm on an unlimited plan for my data card.

[digiblur]

Ouch....don't use that menu! Me and several others in another forum found out the hard way. Once you change that option there's no way to put it back to Automatic. So when you switch it back to 1900 PCS your phone will no longer roam onto 850 cellular. You will have to manually toggle it back and forth as needed for roaming. Huge pain... the only way were able to fix it was the dialer code that factory resets your phone and does a full reprovision of the phone number, data profile, etc. Basically like taking the phone straight out the box brand new.

[pyroscott]

 

Well' date=' I have Wi-Fi but it's using a Sprint 3G card for the back end. I have no cable internet, no DSL, etc. Really no other options at this time but Sprint 3G. Fortunately I've had it long enough that I'm on an unlimited plan for my data card.[/quote']

 

Gotcha. My first thought was using that instead of the network, but no go on that.

 

From JBtoro on Forum Runner

[S4GRU]

1. To echo Digiblur, I have heard others made this mistake and had to do a factory reset. Painful lesson.

 

2. Sprint is not deploying EVDO on any 800 SMR, like Rawvega says. Not enough spectrum. LTE and 1xA only.

 

3. It is all but impossible to find a LTE carrier on 800 now (even if you had a device that was capable). It is 10MHz wide and would severely interfere with existing Nextel iDEN operations. Even the LTE 800 FIT is being considered in far from interfering locations...like Montana.

 

Robert via CM9 Kindle Fire using Forum Runner

[4ginnc]

...

2. Sprint is not deploying EVDO on any 800 SMR, like Rawvega says. Not enough spectrum. LTE and 1xA only.

...

 

That's what I thought Robert, but just wanted to clarify after I saw this post from AJ:

 

...

For the EVO LTE, Secondary 800 MHz affects only CDMA1X and EV-DO modes. So, if you force Secondary 800 MHz and acquire a signal, then that indicates CDMA1X 800. Thus, Network Vision 3G 800 MHz upgrades are also in place in parts of your market.

...

 

 

I know we won't find any 800 now, just wondering if the future if I would have problems falling back to 1X more often if the 800 1X signal was stronger than my 1900 EV-DO.

 

 

...

3. It is all but impossible to find a LTE carrier on 800 now (even if you had a device that was capable). It is 10MHz wide and would severely interfere with existing Nextel iDEN operations. Even the LTE 800 FIT is being considered in far from interfering locations...like Montana.

 

 

Thanks guys.

[WiWavelength]

That's what I thought Robert, but just wanted to clarify after I saw this post from AJ:

 

To clarify, the EVO LTE explicitly does support EV-DO 800, so the Secondary 800 MHz can/does affect both CDMA1X and EV-DO modes. However, the EV-DO scenario is unlikely to ever come to pass, as Sprint has no plans to deploy EV-DO 800.

 

AJ

[InTheRough]

For those who want to use Field Trial, you can also download an app from android market called Quick Shortcuts. This will let you create a shortcut to Field Trial for easy access.

[avb]

Has Sprint mentioned when 800 and for voice coverage will start to be deployed?

[BenChase7]

Has Sprint mentioned when 800 and for voice coverage will start to be deployed?

 

Pretty sure Sprint is deploying it now in some markets.

[tongboy]

Has Sprint mentioned when 800 and for voice coverage will start to be deployed?

 

It is currently deployed in a good chunk of nv towers in the Chicago market. It makes a huge difference inside buildings.

 

Sent from my EVO LTE

[zodiac12345]

1. To echo Digiblur, I have heard others made this mistake and had to do a factory reset. Painful lesson.

 

Robert via CM9 Kindle Fire using Forum Runner

 

Well, I fell for this trap (more so created it) as well on my Photon Q for Force Roaming. I eventually started digging in QPST, and found something interesting. Under Service Programming>UMTS System, There is a check list for all the frequencies. This holds the key to our problems. I stumbled upon this thread when I was looking for what Secondary 800 MHz was, and have found that its our lovely 800 MHz SMR.

 

I posted what I think is the solution on XDA, I have yet to test this out. Link to XDA Post: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=32962830#post32962830

[digiblur]

The EVO LTE has everything checked except for "Any BC".

[zodiac12345]

Very odd, especially considering that the Evo LTE and Photon Q have essentially the same chipset, except for the GSM radios in the Q. I am getting native Sprint signal now (after messing with QPST), I'll post when later today when I find out if Auto Roam does indeed work. But it looks like the Evo LTE is just a lemon.

[Steven800]

Ouch....don't use that menu! Me and several others in another forum found out the hard way. Once you change that option there's no way to put it back to Automatic. So when you switch it back to 1900 PCS your phone will no longer roam onto 850 cellular. You will have to manually toggle it back and forth as needed for roaming. Huge pain... the only way were able to fix it was the dialer code that factory resets your phone and does a full reprovision of the phone number, data profile, etc. Basically like taking the phone straight out the box brand new.

How would I go about doing this? I think i've might of done this by accident and now my phone wont pick up VZW automatically. And yesterday I was messing around with the settings in that menu by dialing *#*#4636#*#* and then my phone got stuck in roaming. Then I kept trying to switch it back to pcs 1900 but it kept freezing and rebooting. Then I think I put my phone on airplane mode and changed it back to pcs 1900 and thank god it worked. But I think i've might of did this before as when I went to Branson the other day I was unable to Roam. Where as my moms iPhone 4s could. 

[RCM]

Looks like I need to read these threads more often

 

I ran into this problem while traveling and got my phone stuck in boot loop. Was able to get it under control eventually and went to a Sprint store to ask them to reflash the ROM. They said they didn't have it but I could find it on the internet somewhere, maybe even HTC's website

[patrickal04]

Looks like I need to read these threads more often

 

I ran into this problem while traveling and got my phone stuck in boot loop. Was able to get it under control eventually and went to a Sprint store to ask them to reflash the ROM. They said they didn't have it but I could find it on the internet somewhere, maybe even HTC's website

I had this issue with my Evo and thought I had screwed up my phone trying to force roam on Vzw. I did a reverse logistics hard reset, ##786#, got my phone off roaming and back to normal.

 

Sent from my EVO using Tapatalk 2

 

 

[RCM]

I had this issue with my Evo and thought I had screwed up my phone trying to force roam on Vzw. I did a reverse logistics hard reset, ##786#, got my phone off roaming and back to normal.

 

Sent from my EVO using Tapatalk 2

 

I confirmed today that I will need to do a full and complete factory reset since roaming did not work at all when I was out and about. I'm currently looking into ways of getting the MSL before I get too involved with the reset. I've seen hit and miss reports about Sprint coughing up your MSL number. And I've seen numerous pages out on the net about needing to root the EVO LTE to draw the MSL out of the phone itself

 

I figure with the Sprint store blowing me off about reflashing my phone and saying "good luck, you're on your own" that I took that as a green light to root my phone.

[koiulpoi]

I confirmed today that I will need to do a full and complete factory reset since roaming did not work at all when I was out and about. I'm currently looking into ways of getting the MSL before I get too involved with the reset. I've seen hit and miss reports about Sprint coughing up your MSL number. And I've seen numerous pages out on the net about needing to root the EVO LTE to draw the MSL out of the phone itself

 

I figure with the Sprint store blowing me off about reflashing my phone and saying "good luck, you're on your own" that I took that as a green light to root my phone.

Sprint doesn't care if you root your device, only if rooting it negatively affects the network in some way. So, go ahead, root away.

 

Additionally retail stores that are not Corporate Sprint Owned (anything that says like "Sprint Store by Galactic Communications") has no more access than you do to images to flash devices. They have to use Google and shady websites, all the same as you.

[halcyoncmdr]

Sprint doesn't care if you root your device, only if rooting it negatively affects the network in some way. So, go ahead, root away.

 

Additionally retail stores that are not Corporate Sprint Owned (anything that says like "Sprint Store by Galactic Communications") has no more access than you do to images to flash devices. They have to use Google and shady websites, all the same as you.

 

Correct rooting is ok, custom software is not. If you're able to load C00LR0M_1337_H4X_3D1T10N on your phone, you're able to find the stock image and flash it back. Rooting does not directly affect your device negatively but any custom software or hardware changes like overclocking are not supported as they can potentially damage your phone and cause unforeseen issues.

 

Sprint corporate sites also are limited with phone ROM images. While a full service store will have a triage system with phone software images, they don't have everything. Feature phone software will be hit or miss, mostly miss. Field support for image reloads isn't a priority with manufacturers for the "dumb" phones, understandably. Most smart phones have images loaded, but they may not be up to date. It can take anywhere from a week to a few months after release for new software images to be loaded on the triage system (for varying reasons). Sometimes it's for damage control if there is an issue, If a software version has an issue, they can quickly turn off OTA updates, removing the image from all triage systems and reloading old images again takes much longer. Field servicing of handsets is a dance between the cost to produce for the manufacturer and field repair ability. While many parts are replaceable in store, there are many that are not and every single model is different.

 

One phone you may be able to replace just about everything on it, buttons, camera, kickstand, camera flash, housing, screen, charging port, etc. while another one from the same manufacturer you can only change the housing and camera. Every model is different, and many times most of hte components are attached to the board and unable to be replaced. The most repairable phones the techs love.

 

Stores are limited in the number of exchanges they are allowed each month. In addition, the store is required to stay below a 35% exchange rate overall. This includes devices that the store is REQUIRED to exchange regardless of repairability. iPhones cannot be repaired in store, Blackberries within warranty cannot be repaired, The HTC ONE cannot be repaired, and phones with internal batteries are hit or miss due to the potential for a technician to puncture the soft-pack batteries within and cause damage to the device, themselves or their surroundings.

 

(Lithium ION Polymer IS NOT TO BE MESSED WITH)

 

 

 

For those interested here's some info about the triage system used in corporate full service locations:

 

1. The system used is a triage laptop, usually an HP Elitebook.

 

2. It has both consumer-available software loaded like Blackberry Desktop Software, JL_Cmdr, Zune, iTunes, etc., and also proprietary Sprint/OEM software like Samsung SMART, Samsung's SimpleDL tools, LGnPST, Motorola RSD, some Kyocera/Sanyo tools for specific models, etc.

 

3. The laptop is loaded with DeepFreeze and is in a perpetual frozen state. Policy requires the laptop to be restarted after every phone serviced. This ensures all CPNI (Customer Proprietary Network Information) is removed from the laptop before another phone is plugged in, potentially cross-contaminating data.

 

4. In reality, the laptop usually isn't restarted every time due to a number of issues with the system. The laptop takes anywhere from 10-20 minutes to restart, depending on how much information changed that DeepFreeze needs to revert back since the last reboot. In addition, in many cases large software downloads like Blackberry and iOS updates are not loaded on the computer locally and must be downloaded. Samsung SMART also takes about 20 minutes to unzip all of the software files after each reboot.

 

5. Many stores are still running on "legacy" backhaul just like the network. A few bonded T1 lines to supply the entire store with data connectivity simultaneously, including VoIP phones. The front office terminals used by reps are not full computers, but rather WYSE machines running Windows Embedded with a home server back in Kansas they connect to via remote connection. This particularly causes a delay in all actions if not under ideal network conditions, and the more active users, the slower it is for everyone. Some stores have upgraded AAV connections (my store has a connection from Cox at ~20Mbps, but I have no idea where that is going as I haven't seen a massive increase in speed since it was installed, with the exception of software downloads on the triage system, actual store operations are identically slow, but it may be ping time more than connection speed).

 

6. The store's repeater, if it has one installed, does not run off of the store's backhaul connection. There is a panel on the roof (looks like a standard PCS panel to me at my store, which I think is weird, but I am not trained on network mechanics) aimed at a nearby tower and that then is brought into the building and run through a rack similar to the one installed at the base station. There is a separate carrier card and equipment for the repeater in the building and several miniature antennae spaced around the server rack to provide service inside the store. It is very low power and does not travel very far outside of the store itself to ensure it does not interfere with the macro network as a whole.